Grab This Free Home Safety Checklist

Can a fire truck find your house at night?

Stand at the curb tonight and look.

Is your address easy to read in the dark? From a moving vehicle? If your answer is "kind of," you just found the first thing to fix.

Most of us have never checked. That's not being lazy. It's just life. The house works. Nothing's broken. So the safety stuff stays in the "someday" pile.

Here's the part that changes the math.

FEMA's U.S. Fire Administration says you could have less than two minutes to escape a home fire once the smoke alarm sounds. U.S. Fire Administration

Two minutes.

That's not enough time to hunt for a flashlight. Or figure out which window opens. Or remember where the gas shut-off is.

So we made you a one-pager.

The Home Safety Walkthrough

Six areas. 24 quick checks. Room by room.

Print it, grab a pen, and walk your house. Most folks finish in about 15 minutes.

Here are four checks people almost always miss:

Your main water shut-off. Do you know where it is? Could your spouse find it? Tag it today. A burst pipe at 2 a.m. is a rough time to go looking.

Two ways out of every room. A door and a window. Then pick one meeting spot outside. The mailbox. The neighbor's driveway. Somewhere everyone knows by heart.

The extinguisher needle. You bought one. Good. Now look at the gauge. Is the needle in the green? Extinguishers lose pressure just sitting there.

A flashlight by each bed. Not in the kitchen drawer. Not out in the garage. By the bed, where your hand can find it in the dark.

Do this today

Don't try to do the whole house at once. Pick one room. The kitchen's a good place to start.

Check those four boxes. Fix what's missing. Do the next room tomorrow.

Small steps beat good intentions every time.

[Download your free Home Safety Walkthrough here]

To your survival,

Frank Bates